They no longer look shiny and new, but are totally functional and are the ones that I have regularly used) Three reeds: 12, 10, and 4 epi (These reeds are the ones that came with the loom when I purchased it. Made in May of 1974, I purchased this loom in the fall of 2016 from the original owner who was downsizing. My understanding is that this is a common weak spot on these older looms and a common way of securing and updating. I also recently replaced the original screw that held the brake brackets together with the break coil with a long bolt that now goes all of the way through the wood. I put a new brake coil on a few years ago. The only reason I am selling is because I have simply run our out space and now use my other looms more. This loom has been an absolute workhorse for me and I'll be sad to see her go. Again, this is nearly a 50 year old loom and has been used regularly by both the original owner and myself. There are some cosmetic blemishes that can be seen in the pictures. This loom has been in regular use the whole time I have owned it and currently has a little sample warp on for folks to try out. I still have the original metal apron rods (minus the cloth aprons that were in very rough shape) that will go with the loom. I replaced the front cloth apron several years ago with Texsolv and a wooden dowel. If desired the sectional beam can easily be removed and replaced with a more conventional apron. The warp beam looks a little unconventional, but I have woven several hundred yards on it and it works greats. It currently has a custom made 1 yard sectional warp beam with 1" sections. This is a 4 harness, 6 treadle Nilus LeClerc loom with a 45" weaving width. I’m sure that his childhood memories will now also be peppered with visions of his mother sitting at the loom and the sounds of the shuttle sailing through the shed, the harnesses falling, and beater at work. My son was three when this loom came home and he just turned 9 this week. I kept thinking about the childhood memories that he must have of watching his mother weave on this machine that he was now helping to send on it’s way. Her son, the one she wove for his school fundraisers, was there to help move the loom and load it up. I keep thinking back to the day I picked the loom up from Mary. I need space to move, and room to warp my main work loom. I love this loom and thoroughly enjoy weaving on it, but am simply out of room. I’ve kept this loom as long as I could, for both usefulness and sentimental reasons. Through the years my needs have shifted to where I needed a wider width and more harnesses. Whereas Mary was downing I have sized up. Like Mary I now find myself not using this loom as much as I should. It allowed me to take on my first paid weaving work and I’ll be eternally grateful. Looking back it honestly makes me feel really proud to think of how much fabric-at least several hundred yards- actually came into being on this loom. I bought this loom with big dreams of weaving yardage for clothing. To do so would mean that its useful life has come to an end. The life of an item that is made to be used shouldn’t stop at a moment in time. Through the years I have left me own marks on the loom from experimental warp dying, to switching out the cloth aprons to Texsolv cord. The numbers are no longer correct, but erasing them always felt like tearing up a sweet picture from the past simply for the sake of tidying up. The loom is marked with notes written in pencil by Mary to herself noting heddle counts. It felt like a smooth transition from one weaver’s hands to the next. The very first warps that I put on the loom were with yarn from Mary’s stash. She liked fuzzy, textural yarns and entrusted me with a tub of yarn that came along with the loom. She used the loom to weave blankets and items that she would sale at fundraisers for her son’s school. It was a Nilus LeClerc 45” four harness jack loom that she had purchased new in 1974. She, like so many weavers before, was downsizing. Edit: Sold | Several years ago I purchased my first floor loom used from a kind woman named Mary.
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